Colorado Symphony Orchestra

Colorado, Denver Symphonies To Merge: The Colorado Symphony Orchestra has agreed to merge with the financially crippled Denver Symphony Assn. Unlike other orchestras that are subsidized about 40% with donations, the Colorado Symphony's existence has been dependent on ticket sales. The Colorado concerts have been promoted by rock music promoter Barry Fey.

Jeffrey Kahane, music director of the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra, is slated to become the next music director of the Colorado Symphony, Denver's Rocky Mountain News reported Thursday. Officials of both orchestras declined to comment other than to state that an official announcement about the choice to succeed current director Marin Alsop, who has been in the post for 10 years, would be made Monday. Alsop would remain as conductor laureate, the paper said.

John Tesh may be best known to most television viewers as the longtime host of "Entertainment Tonight." But he was an active and much-praised composer well before he joined "ET" in 1986. His themes for CBS coverage of the Pan American Games and the Tour de France bicycle race in 1981 won Sports Emmy Awards for best musical composition. Given that kind of recognition, it's probably understandable that he was willing to borrow a substantial chunk of change, reportedly $1.

John Tesh may be best known to most television viewers as the longtime host of "Entertainment Tonight." But he was an active and much-praised composer well before he joined "ET" in 1986. His themes for CBS coverage of the Pan American Games and the Tour de France bicycle race in 1981 won Sports Emmy Awards for best musical composition. Given that kind of recognition, it's probably understandable that he was willing to borrow a substantial chunk of change, reportedly $1.

Nothing seems to bother Barry Fey. For 22 years as king of concert promotion in Colorado, the roly-poly impresario has calmly held his own in the manic, rock 'n' roller-coaster world of big-time pop music. Maybe that's why he appeared to be the only relaxed person in the room during a recent planning session of his latest and most daring, project: the Colorado Symphony, a do-it-yourself, player-run orchestra dreamed up by Fey only a few months ago.

Jeffrey Kahane, music director of the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra, is slated to become the next music director of the Colorado Symphony, Denver's Rocky Mountain News reported Thursday. Officials of both orchestras declined to comment other than to state that an official announcement about the choice to succeed current director Marin Alsop, who has been in the post for 10 years, would be made Monday. Alsop would remain as conductor laureate, the paper said.

Despite vigorous dissent by its musicians, the Baltimore Symphony appointed Marin Alsop music director Tuesday, making her the first woman to head a major American orchestra. An "overwhelming" majority of the orchestra's board voted for the appointment, Chairman Philip English said in a statement. He said Alsop had accepted the position and was expected to sign a contract soon. Details of the contract were not released.

For her debut at Disney Hall this week, acclaimed violinist Nadja Salerno-Sonnenberg, once labeled the "bad girl" of classical music for her outspokenness and fiery performance style, will play Shostakovich's Violin Concerto No. 1, a signature piece she fell in love with as a teenager. "When I first heard it, it was like a challenge," said Salerno-Sonnenberg, who will perform with conductor Miguel Harth-Bedoya and the Los Angeles Philharmonic from Friday through Sunday.

Companies such as Time Warner that are under fire for selling rap albums with lyrics some consider violent or offensive may have found an alternative--release them as instrumental New Age music. That's the inference one could draw from an ad in Friday's Hollywood Reporter touting the success of "Entertainment Tonight" host and keyboardist John Tesh's "Live at Red Rocks" album.

Broad Art Center at UCLA It's no secret that UCLA has one of the best art departments in the country. But it's been hard, in the old art building, to find space to display work by MFA students and a faculty that includes John Baldessari, Lari Pittman, Jennifer Bolande and Catherine Opie. The often unconventional projects from the Design / Media Arts department, which includes Christian Moeller and Jennifer Steinkamp, are often even more difficult to display.

Colorado, Denver Symphonies To Merge: The Colorado Symphony Orchestra has agreed to merge with the financially crippled Denver Symphony Assn. Unlike other orchestras that are subsidized about 40% with donations, the Colorado Symphony's existence has been dependent on ticket sales. The Colorado concerts have been promoted by rock music promoter Barry Fey.

Nothing seems to bother Barry Fey. For 22 years as king of concert promotion in Colorado, the roly-poly impresario has calmly held his own in the manic, rock 'n' roller-coaster world of big-time pop music. Maybe that's why he appeared to be the only relaxed person in the room during a recent planning session of his latest and most daring, project: the Colorado Symphony, a do-it-yourself, player-run orchestra dreamed up by Fey only a few months ago.